Sing Tao News Corporation (1105), the parent company of The Standard, expects a revenue expansion through its "offline to online" strategy of introducing a new media business and further digitalizing its traditional media.
The media group's net loss widened by 72.8 percent to HK$139.8 million last year due to the absence of one-off government grants and an increase in investment spending on new business developments, according to a filing yesterday.
Revenue for the same period rose 1.1 percent to HK$834.8 million thanks to the rebound of consumer sentiment, which in turn drove up advertising spending, it said.
The company has been focusing on the redevelopment of its new media business since last year, which includes providing more online content and investing in innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data analysis.
It launched a new Singtao Headline app in January this year, allowing users to access trending news, videos and live broadcasts.
Headline Daily continues to be Hong Kong's only newspaper with over a million readers, Sing Tao said, citing data from the Ipsos Media Atlas report in the third quarter of last year.
Sing Tao Daily's readership grew to 266,000, while The Standard's readership continued an upward trend to reach 151,000, the report said.
